Just days before a vote to eliminate the Medicaid program as we know it and repeal the Affordable Care Act, 400 young adults from 37 states came to Washington, DC to lobby at FCNL’s Spring Lobby Weekend.
From March 18-21, they heard from policy experts, congressional staff, members of Congress, and each other. They shared personal experiences of the lifesaving benefits of federal programs to help people with low incomes access food and health care. They practiced telling those stories.
We reconnected with old friends and made new ones.
Group of people with the last name beginning with F want to #ResistInJustice @quaker_lobby
At Spring Lobby Weekend 2017 #resistinjustice #fcnl #advocacycorps #houghtoncollege
Earlham College represents at Spring Lobby Weekend!
We heard from members of Congress and policy experts
Speakers included
- Reps. Keith Ellison (MN) and Steve Cohen (TN)
- Ben Wikler of MoveOn.org
- Brad Jenkins of Funny or Die
- Indivar Dutta-Gupta of the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality
- Paul Montiero, former director of the AmeriCorps program
- FCNL’s Diane Randall, Amelia Kegan, Andrew Silva, and other FCNL experts.
Rep. Ellison: “I don’t care about the odds. I care about what’s right and what’s wrong.”
We lobbied, visiting 165 offices to oppose cuts to Medicaid and SNAP (food stamps).
The Quakers take Capitol Hill! In the Hart Senate Building to lobby Dianne Feinstein’s office. Later in the day is Kamala Harris’ office (be jealous) and then representative Linda Sanchez. This is what the past few days have been about. Let the day begin!
We were lobbying with Senator Duckworth and look who else we ran into! Senator Murkowski, who is a strong female leader on the Hill!
Feels good to have such a great individual representing El Paso in Capitol Hill, huge thanks to Rep. @betoorourke and his awesome staff for their hard work and for going out of their way to make sure we got the full DC experience! #ElPasoProud
Though the Capitol’s architecture was designed to make lobbyists like me feel small, marching through the halls of both House and Senate buildings to speak with my representatives made me feel confident, powerful even.